The Big Breakfast Adventure | Wild Mountain Cafe

This morning’s breakfast was going to be different. I like to eat meat. Especially at breakfast – unless breakfast is porridge, then I’ll pass on the meat. I knew there wouldn’t be one scrap of meat on any plate at my table today and I just wasn’t sure that I could do that & feel like I had had a proper breakfast. Today was the day for one of two Best Vegetarian Breakfasts in Seattle. So to take my mind off all things meat & hopefully excite a fellow foodie, I invited along a vegetarian buddy to give me a Veggie’s expert take on it all.

The drive to the Wild Mountain Café in Ballard was uneventful except for two rather exciting moments:

1. I drove all the way there without having Bing’d it first, without printing a map, without a GPS, in fact, without any directional aid whatsoever. See. I’m getting pretty good around town these days.

2. I bought gas for $2.75 a gallon. Gotta love Safeway on 15th & their magical little Club Card.

The "Tower of Power" at the Wild Mountain Café

I asked our server how big the Tower of Power was…like, if I added the suggested 2 poached eggs…would I die? She said, “Yes”. So I went ahead & ordered it with the eggs anyway. They were the closest thing to meat I was going to get. She was right. It was a huge plate of food & I wished the toast hadn’t been there, except that it did add a nice crunch to the otherwise soft texture of everything else.

When the plates arrived the very first thing that I noticed was a clove of garlic. Yes, a whole clove, nestled quietly in amongst the spinach & mushrooms. Upon further exploration with my fork, there were cloves of garlic lurking everywhere. I could tell immediately that this plate of food was single-handedly going to fight off an entire swarm of vampires. Clearly no snogging for me tonight. The potato cakes lurking underneath the pile of freshly sautéed vegetables were perfect. In fact, I would have preferred more potato cakes over that toast.

I have to admit that this wasn’t the most beautiful plate of food that I have ever encountered, but I gotta tell ya, it was über-tasty & next time I need a veggie fix I’ll be heading up north for another Tower of Power.

And now…over to the Veggie Breakfast expert. CK, take it away:

“Thoughts from a guest blogger….

I knew almost nothing about the Wild Mountain Cafe, only the name, address, and the fact it served a good vegetarian breakfast. Normally I like to research but I was unable to connect to the Internet the night before and do any sleuthing. Naturally I drive right by it, the GPS told me that I had arrived but all I saw was houses so I kept driving. I did turn around after several “recalculating” comments from the GPS. It was a house with a small sign out front, I forgave myself for missing it. That’s one of the things I love about Seattle, a unique restaurant scene—always expect the unexpected. We were a little early so while we chatted, a line was forming—always a good sign. So let me say, I loved it. It was clean, it was cozy, the staff was pleasant. Old houses converted into restaurants aren’t the easiest things to keep clean so they got high points right away. The restaurant had four rooms which were uniquely decorated but tied in together. All displayed art from a different local artist that you could buy if you desired. They strive to give back to the community and leave as small a carbon footprint as possible. They compost with worms no less :-)

I got the feeling that it catered to locals and restaurant people, my kind of restaurant as neither group wastes much time in restaurants that aren’t good. The Breakfast menu is served until 4 pm on the week-ends and it includes Macaroni and Cheese. I think you can tell a lot about a place that serves Eggs Benedict and Mac and Cheese at 8:30 am—will need to go back for both. I already knew what my foodie photog friend was getting—the Tower of Power. I wasn’t as committed but eventually decided on it as well. Ok, I really did think that it would be a tower of some sort, maybe held together with toothpicks? Two garlic potato pancakes topped with sautéed spinach, mushrooms, tomatoes, onion, roasted garlic, cheddar cheese, I’m sure that I’m forgetting something. The waitress suggested that we add 2 poached eggs over medium—sold! It wasn’t a tower per say, more of a food explosion on the plate. We were delighted. It was perfect food for a rainy, cool, morning in Seattle. Breakfast is my favorite meal and the good company only enhanced it. While tackling the tower, I couldn’t get the homemade cinnamon roll out of my head so I ordered it to go for my other half back at home. Later, sitting at a red light, the thing smelled too darn good so I had to sample. Oh my, it was warm, it was soft, the icing was melting perfectly, it made my mouth very happy. I did manage to get some back to the house.”

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